Friday 2 March 2018

Testing Times

It's official, we are all snow and iced in. Traffic is going nowhere. We have the essentials to get us through being housebound, such as cakes, chocolate, dvds, cakes, hot tea.....and did I mention cakes?

It all started to change for the worse at the beginning of the week, exactly the same time that Bex was to go through her PA1 and PA6a pesticide training courses.  It was all being carried out at a training centre in the middle of the countryside, some 20 miles from home. A very large and exposed site.


Monday it was the PA1, which was spent indoors, and involved everything to do with pesticides, their use, legislation and laws etc. It was sunny, but very cold and windy. 


On Tuesday she was training for the PA6a, which involves the use of knapsack sprayers, calibration, safe working conditions and safe and accurate application of the pesticide. We dropped her off to a somewhat different day to come. The icy weather had started to arrive, 'The Beast from the East' I believe it has been named. By the time we picked her up it was snowing, and the practical training had been held in the open field. Testing indeed, especially with the paperwork calculations to be made accurately.


By Wednesday, the day of the examinations by an external assessor, the big freeze was well under way, and there were stories of sprayers and lances freezing up. But luckily there were plenty of spares, and the assessor took into account the conditions. 


She passed both with flying colours!

The following day, Thursday, and the whole of the south of England appears to be in a big freeze, and we still are. Timing eh?

9 comments:

  1. Congratulations are well deserved, to accomplish it in that weather proves she is made of tough stuff.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Doc
      It was really challenging for her on all sorts of levels

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  2. Congratulations, that's really good news. Keep safe and warm all of you.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Molly
      We are making the most of home at the mo.

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  3. A little unfair to continue in that weather, I think. My brain doesn't work properly in extreme cold; nor would any normal person go out spraying in such weather. So, all the more congratulations to Bex for having done so well.

    Quite nice and sunny here. 15 C expected today. Jealous?

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  4. I must admit to being a bit frustrated at the fact that with all of the huge barns on site, they couldn't allocate one for the course if needed. As for your weather....jealous?....Moi?....Yep!

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  5. Replies
    1. Thanks John, and I was a Sam once, but had to leave.

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